Cardiac tamponade as a result of endoscopic sclerotherapy: report of a case.

Sclerotherapy was used in the treatment of a patient with actively bleeding esophageal varices. Chest pain and a pericardial friction rub became evident on the day after sclerotherapy and resolved without therapy. Six months later the patient manifested cardiac tamponade which required pericardiectomy. The events of this case suggest that chronic pericarditis with cardiac tamponade was a direct complication of sclerotherapy. This report extends the range of reported complications and emphasizes the importance of follow-up of patients in whom transient pericardial friction rub develops after sclerotherapy.